Deep into my dissertation but...

... I don't really know what it's about. Yes, I have a case. I have three literatures. I have a methodology. I have some great stories and a couple "that's interesting" moments scattered in my data. But there's nothing that really ties it all together, and I keep changing my questions to fit my data. My committee has not been helpful, or they just want me to figure it out on my own. And each time I do offer something, they reject it. How do I narrow this down and get it right? This is so chaotic and I'm pretty sure research is not supposed to be conducted like this.

I'm there with you. It isn't as cohesive as I'd hoped, but one of the chapters has great data, a very clear question, and a well-argued point to make, so it's become the basis of my "elevator pitch." This pitch works well and most people assume its the topic of the whole dissertation and not like 1/5 of it.

The other chapters are fine as standalone pieces (I have published two of them), but are a bit awkward together, and it's hard to tell a story about what they're all about as part of a monograph.

As I look toward a late spring defense, I'm just now realizing that rather than doing one dissertation project, I 'accidentally' did two (maybe three) standalone projects and fused them haphazardly. Not clear if my committee is reading what I send them, but they think it's solid.

I didn’t fully know what my dissertation was “about” until after I completed 2 drafts. Feel your way through it, and let the project guide you. You have to suspend what feels like an urgent need to have it all figured out before it’s ready (this is anxiety, by definition). It’s not easy to do this, of course, but it’s the only way to make it through the thing without limiting the project’s potential.

Something else I did, before I saw the project in its totality - before I fully knew what it was “about” - was draft the entire dissertation (sans conclusion) and submit it to my chair.

As a recovering perfectionist, I know can be my own worst enemy, so instead of going chapter by chapter and risk getting stuck, I started with a brief introduction of the empirical problem and articulated the approach (no discussion of significance). The body was simply the answering of my research question through analysis of my data. I broke my ‘answer’ down into 3 parts, which eventually corresponded to chapters. Of course, areas were problematic, others totally underdeveloped - and I was super insecure about it too. But I marked those places for later and forced myself through it. Then, instead of a conclusion, I wrote a letter to my chair summarizing what I did, articulated the issues I was having, and provided what I saw as the next steps. This process took two months start to finish (in the summer), by working on it for 1-3 hours, every day.

I received very helpful and affirmative feedback from my chair a few weeks after. 3 months after that, in mid-fall, the conceptual framework and contribution (which was where I was struggling) - illuminated itself. This was very timely, because it gave me the rest of the year to work on job market materials, publish, and make the most out of my final days as a student. I never missed a happy hour with colleagues.

Looking back, a lot of those measures for the first draft were unnecessary - a product of being an anxious gradflake. The biggest take away was that I had finally learned to believe in myself. Good luck.

Select a few books you are citing that were published in the last ten years. Go find the dissertation version of those book. Read them. This was my strategy when I was stuck - also a qual diss that was very inductive and seemed to be going nowhere most of the time. I would try to ask the questions of my data that the authors were asking in their dissertations. Because disses are so different than books I found them more helpful for getting unstuck.

I figured out what my diss was about nine months after graduating. Now it’s about to be a book. You’ll get there. try not to get stuck in the weeds.

This is a very good idea, and *congratulations* on the book! Happy to hear this worked for you, though it might not be the best idea in other cases, especially for someone who feels like they are always changing their question. Reading a lot of dissertations during this time could easily exacerbate the anxiety and distract from the task at hand. (It would have made someone like me go crazy, that is for sure). The good news is, most of the time, just because we feel stuck doesn't mean we actually are stuck. It's a cognitive distortion stemming from the anxiety the comes with not having the answers yet. It's normal and healthy, and it gets a lot better once you learn to ride the waves instead of fighting the current.

> But there's nothing that really ties it all together, and I keep changing my questions to fit my data.

How far along are you? Do you have an outline -- chapters written or at least sketched out? Do what you tell your students to do. Write the outline and write and rewrite the outline and write. And so on. And then you'll have chapters and then you write your intro to tie it together.

OP - just write it. Freaking out and changing your question over and over again is holding you back. Swallow your insecurity. You can freak out later, once it’s into your committee. Remember, just because you think it’s sh*t, doesn’t mean it is. We hold ourselves to impossible standards. And even if it is amazing - it does not portend job. That will be a hell of it’s own, so best to make the most of this time. Really.

OP here. Thanks for the advice. I guess I just have to take it slow. For more context, I have conducted some field work already but am soon going to spending an entire year back at my site collecting data. It's still the early stages, I guess, but it's maddening that I am returning to my site without a clear sense of what I'm even supposed to be looking for there. My committee just wants me to be patient, I think, and they're probably right.